American High

I have to say that when I first read/heard about the premise of this show, I thought that it would be simply crap. I've viewed quite a few of these "reality" shows (eg. "Survivor", "Big Brother",...) and some of these shows are almost laughable. I didn't even bother to check out the first couple of episodes of "American High" that were shown on Fox. I had no idea what I was missing out on. I was surfing through channels, unable to find anything good to watch at 10 PM on a Wednesday night. I stopped on PBS, which is a very rare occurrence, and I found a show that actually held my attention. I had no idea what I was watching until a little bit into the show. I was very surprised at how good this show actually was. I think it's very interesting and informative to see so many different types of teenagers. Whether you love them or hate them, you get a good look at what their lives are really like. Now I really look forward to watching this show every week (It's on for an hour, but it only seems like twenty minutes to me). I never got to see the beginning of this series, and I hope that PBS either re-runs the series in it's entirety or that they start all over again, following new teens. This show has really been an enlightening pleasure to watch. This show gets 10 stars in my book.

The reruns that I saw in the summer of two-thousand-one on PBS were very interesting, seeing how other people live their lives, and what obstacles they had to face.

Now that I look back I wonder why FOX canceled this series, sure it does not have very much-- wait, actually it has no hype, but it's still a very good series.

If they happen to do something like this again, hopefully they will put some hype into it, it might make the show last longer. The idea was great, the content was good, I'd rate this show 3.5 of 4 stars.

I was utterly disappointed when it was announced that this show would be cancelled after just two episodes. Leave it to money-grubbing television executives to place immediate financial gain above long-term reputation building. Part of the reason I liked this so much is because it was filmed at Highland Park high school, my high school's cross-town rival, which I visited regularly. I even took summer school classes there. This made it all the more real: the kids appearing on the show were much like the ones I knew in high school, and I thought this show was probably the most realistic of the "reality" shows. Unfortunately, it was sent to the scrapheap in favor of contrived series' like "Survivor" and the latest seasons of "The Real World", whose participants are chosen more for their physical appearance and trendiness than anything else. American High was the last and the best of the true reality shows, a group that only includes the first two seasons of "The Real World" and the first season of "Road Rules".

Many people who have reviewed this show have called it "just another reality show," well, I say it isn't. "American High" is not only a documentary, but is actually one of the best ever. While the "reality shows", if the warped situations they create can even be classified in with the same world which we dwell in, create absurd situations for the paid actors to entertain us, "American High" simply stands back and watches the action unfold without disturbing the situation. Anyone who is or has ever been a teenager can easily identify with at least one of the characters on "American High." The highlight of this show for me at least was Kaytee, the horn-rimmed glasses wearing, guitar player, who's songs so eloquently express the difficulties of growing up, as well as the absurdities of it. In conclusion, watch this show, now! You won't be sorry!

My hope is that when it was pulled from Fox it would have been re-edited into a feature; the matteral is here for an intresting, complex and rich documentry, and thats exactly what it is. Now it's found a home on PBS, where it has held my attention. It isn't reality based TV, and to dismiss the work of an acclaimed documentry crew as another exercise in reality based TV isn't fair, given the nature of American High. American High cares more about characters than pay offs, much like the film Our Song. What interesting characters these are as well although some are underdevoloped for the sake of time. The relationships are also interestingly portrayed, something not seen in American Telivision, rich, real realtionships, it's all about one-liners in sitcoms vs. established characters. In fact American High, and NBC's reality based romantic comedy seres ED may be the only TV shows to show natural relationships without being forced with a plot in mind. My only hope is American High isn't lost, and that the series comes out on DVD, it's a story I'd like to own, it's characters much like the ones in every suberban culture, and thats why most Americans can relate to it instead of the idiotic Survivor rip-offs (ironically produced by Fox, the same network that funded this show), Big Brother, and banal sitcoms. Watch this if your serarous about good documentry filmmaking.